The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has bagged victory in the 2019 Elections, with 57.50% of the total national votes cast in the hotly contested polls.
The final results in the National and Provincial Elections were announced by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) at the National Results Operation Centre (ROC) on Saturday.
The announcement came three days after over 17 million of the 26 779 025 registered South Africans took to the polls on Wednesday.
A record 48 political parties contested the elections, making it the most contested polls since the dawn of democracy.
The final results of the 6th National and Provincial elections, announced by IEC Chairperson, Glen Mashinini, show that the Democratic Alliance (DA) will still remain the official opposition party, as it gained 20.77% of the votes. In 2014, the party received 22.23% of the total votes cast in the National Election.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) cemented their place in the leadership ranks by gaining 10.79% of the votes cast nationally. This is an increase for the five-year-old party, which managed to get 6.35% in the 2014 Elections.
The top three are followed by Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) at number four, which received 3.38%; the Freedom Front Plus (VF PLUS) with 2.38%, the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) with 0.84 % and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) with 0.45%.
The top 10 is completed by newcomers African Transformation Movement (ATM), with 0.44% of the votes, and GOOD with 0.40%, followed by the National Freedom Party (NFP), with 0.35% of the votes.
Because these were National Elections, the IEC had to break down the number of seats that each political party will get in the National Assembly of Parliament, using a quota of the proportional representation system or party list system.
There are 400 seats to go around in the National Assembly.
In order to translate these numbers into Parliamentary seats, IEC officials had to divide the total number of votes - 17 666 260 million in this case - by the number of Parliamentary seats - 400 - in order to generate a quota.
Once the quota was established, the IEC divided it by the number of votes each party received.
According to the IEC numbers, the ANC will be sending 230 of its members to Parliament. In the 2014 Elections, the party acquired 249 seats, while it had 264 seats in the 2009 Elections.
The DA will be sending 84 of its members to Parliament. In the 2014 Elections, the DA had 89 seats and 67 in 2009.
In third place, in terms of seat allocation, will be the EFF with 44 seats, an increase from the 25 seats the party had in 2014.
Coming in fourth place will be the IFP, which secured 14 seats, up from 10 in the last elections.
VF Plus comes into the top five, with 10 seats allocated. In the fifth Parliament, the party ranked seventh with only four seats.
The ACDP and the UDM bagged 4 and 2 seats respectively.
Provinces
In the Provincial Elections, the results stand as follows:
Eastern Cape:
- The African Transformation Movement with one (1) seat
- The Vryheidsfront Plus with one (1) seat
- The United Democratic Movement with two (2) seats
- The Economic Freedom Fighters with five (5) seats
- The Democratic Alliance with ten (10) seats
- The African National Congress with forty four (44) seats
Free State:
- The Vryheidsfront Plus with one (1) seat
- The Economic Freedom Fighters with four (4) seats
- The Democratic Alliance with six (6) seats
- The African National Congress with nineteen(19) seats
Gauteng:
- The African Christian Democratic Party with one (1) seat
- The Inkatha Freedom Party with one (1) seat
- The Economic Freedom Fighters with eleven (11) seats
- The Democratic Alliance with twenty (20) seats
- The African National Congress with thirty seven (37) seats
KwaZulu-Natal:
- The African Transformation Movement with one (1) seat
- The African Christian Democratic Party with one (1) seat
- The Minority Front with one (1) seat
- The National Freedom Party with one (1) seat
- The Economic Freedom Fighters with eight (8) seats
- The Democratic Alliance with eleven (11) seats
- The Inkatha Freedom Party with thirteen (13) seats
- The African National Congress with forty four (44) seats
Limpopo:
- The Vryheidsfront Plus with one (1) seat
- The Democratic Alliance with three (3) seats
- The Economic Freedom Fighters with seven (7) seats
- The African National Congress with thirty eight (38) seats
Mpumalanga:
- The Vryheidsfront Plus with one (1) seat
- The Democratic Alliance with three (3) seats
- The Economic Freedom Fighters with four (4) seats
- The African National Congress with twenty two (22) seats
North West:
- The Vryheidsfront Plus with two (2) seats
- The Democratic Alliance with four (4) seats
- The Economic Freedom Fighters with six (6) seats
- The African National Congress with twenty one (21) seats
Northern Cape:
- The Vryheidsfront Plus with one (1) seat
- The Economic Freedom Fighters with three (3) seats
- The Democratic Alliance with eight (8) seats
- The African National Congress with eighteen (18) seats
Western Cape:
- Al-jamah with one (1) seat
- The Vryheidsfront Plus with one (1) seat
- The African Christian Democratic Party with one (1) seat
- The Good Party with one (1) seat
- The Economic Freedom Fighters with two (2) seats
- The African National Congress with twelve (12) seats
- The Democratic Alliance with twenty four (24) seats
Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo thanked voters, who came out in their numbers to cast their votes, and politicians, government and volunteers who assisted in the voting stations.
He said despite the challenges encountered, the IEC has come through the elections even stronger as an institution.
“As the Electoral Commission, we have learned that there is always hope for evolution in systems, people and persistence,” Mamabolo said.
With the results announced, attention now moves to the political parties who will have to finalise their lists of representatives they will send to serve Parliament over a period of five years.
According to the Constitution, both Houses of Parliament must be established within 14 days of the IEC’s declaring results of the election.
The first sitting of the National Assembly is provisionally scheduled for 22 May and that of the National Council of Provinces for 23 May. However, the Chief Justice has the powers, under the Constitution, to determine the dates and times. – SAnews.gov.za
